THE INJECTION
1651 Words
The syringe was empty before Declan could move.
Elias stumbled back, his eyes wide, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps. The amber liquid had vanished into his veins, and already his body was reacting—twitching, jerking, like electricity was running through his muscles.
"What did you do?" Declan demanded.
Elias laughed—a wild, desperate sound. "What I should have done years ago. What I've been too afraid to do." He braced himself against the wall, his knuckles white. "The final treatment. For myself this time."
"What final treatment?"
"The one that erases everything. Every memory. Every regret. Every sin." Elias's eyes glazed over. "I've been developing it for years. Testing it on patients. Perfecting it. And now—now I get to experience it firsthand."
Declan stepped toward him. "You're going to forget everything?"
"Everything. The hospital. The basement. Lara. You." Elias slid down the wall, his legs giving out. "When I wake up, I won't remember any of this. I won't remember the things I've done. The people I've hurt. The sister I tried to save."
"You're not trying to save her. You're destroying her."
"I'm helping her. Just like I helped you." Elias's voice was barely a whisper now. "You came to me because you couldn't live with the guilt. I gave you peace. I gave you oblivion. I gave you a second chance."
"You gave me drugs."
"Same thing, in the end."
Elias's eyes closed.
His body went limp.
And then he stopped breathing.
Declan knelt beside him, checking for a pulse. Nothing. The man's heart had stopped. The drug had done more than erase memories—it had stopped his heart.
"No," Declan said. "No, no, no."
He started CPR. Chest compressions. Rescue breaths. Over and over, the rhythm he'd learned decades ago in a different life.
"Breathe, damn you. Breathe."
Lara watched from her chair, her eyes wide, her mouth moving in silent prayer.
Declan kept going. One minute. Two. Three.
Elias's chest rose.
A gasp. A cough. A sputter.
His eyes opened.
"Welcome back," Declan said.
Elias stared at him. His gaze was blank. Empty. Like a newborn baby seeing the world for the first time.
"Who are you?" Elias asked.
Declan's blood ran cold.
"You don't remember me?"
"I don't remember anything." Elias pushed himself up, his arms shaking. "Where am I? Who am I? What is this place?"
Declan looked at Lara. Her face was pale, her lips pressed together in a thin line.
"You're in a hospital," Declan said slowly. "Your hospital. You're Dr. Elias Vance."
"Elias." The man tested the name, rolling it around in his mouth. "I don't feel like an Elias."
"What do you feel like?"
"Empty. Like someone scooped out the inside of my head and left nothing behind." He looked at his hands. At the syringe on the floor. At the wires and machines and monitors. "Did I do this to myself?"
"Yes."
"Was I trying to kill myself?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe you were trying to become someone else."
Elias was quiet for a long moment.
Then he looked at Lara.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
Lara's eyes filled with tears. "I'm your sister."
"My sister." He studied her face, searching for recognition. Finding none. "I don't remember you."
"I know."
"Should I?"
"No." Her voice cracked. "Maybe it's better if you don't."
---
The room was silent except for the hum of the machines.
Declan untied Lara's wrists and ankles, his fingers fumbling with the knots. She stood up slowly, her legs unsteady, and leaned against him for support.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Don't thank me yet. We're still trapped."
The door was still sealed. The locks were still engaged. The speakers were still silent.
Declan walked to the control panel on the wall and studied it. Wires. Circuits. A keypad glowing red.
"Can you open it?" Lara asked.
"I can try." He pulled out his lock picks—the same ones he'd used a lifetime ago—and began working on the panel. The wires were color-coded. Red to red. Black to black. If he could cross the right circuits, the locks would disengage.
Sparks flew.
The lights flickered.
The locks clicked.
Declan pushed the door open.
"Let's go," he said.
Lara grabbed Elias's arm. "He's coming with us."
"He tried to kill you."
"He's still my brother. And he doesn't remember anything. He's not a threat anymore."
Declan looked at Elias. The man stood in the corner of the room, his arms wrapped around himself, his eyes darting from wall to wall like a trapped animal.
"You stay close to me," Declan said. "You don't talk. You don't touch anything. You do exactly what I say."
Elias nodded.
They walked out of the room and into the corridor.
---
The third level was dark.
The emergency lights had kicked in—dim red bulbs that cast long shadows across the walls. The treatment rooms were empty. The doors were open. The patients were gone.
"Where is everyone?" Lara whispered.
"I don't know."
They moved quickly, staying close to the walls, avoiding the pools of light. The staircase to the second level was at the end of the corridor—a steel door with a keypad.
Declan typed 1982.
The light turned green.
The door swung open.
The second level was chaos.
Patients wandered the corridors, their eyes empty, their gowns stained. Orderlies ran past, shouting into radios. Nurses tried to calm the patients, to guide them back to their rooms.
"What happened?" Declan asked a nurse as she ran by.
"The system crashed. All the doors opened at once. We can't control them."
Declan looked at Lara. "Wendy. She must have triggered the override."
"She's buying us time."
"Then let's not waste it."
They pushed through the crowd of patients and orderlies, heading for the staircase to the first level. Elias followed close behind, his eyes wide, his breath quick.
The first level was worse.
The cells were open. The patients were free. Some were crying. Some were laughing. Some were just standing in place, staring at nothing.
And in the center of the corridor, blocking the way to the maintenance tunnel, stood Roman.
His face was bruised. His clothes were torn. His eyes were wild.
"You," Roman said, pointing at Declan. "This is your fault."
"Roman, listen to me. The system crashed. It wasn't me."
"Wendy did it for you. I know. I heard her on the radio." Roman stepped closer. "You've destroyed everything. The hospital. The patients. My sister."
"Where's Nina?"
"In the basement. Elias locked her in a cell before he—" Roman stopped. He was staring at Elias. "What happened to him?"
"He injected himself with the final treatment. He doesn't remember anything."
Roman laughed—a bitter, broken sound. "Of course. Of course he would find a way to escape. He always finds a way."
"Roman, we need to get out of here. The police are coming. Wendy called them."
"The police won't help. They're in Elias's pocket. They always have been."
"Then we run. We disappear. We find somewhere safe."
"There is no safe. Not for people like us." Roman's voice cracked. "Nina is in the basement. I'm not leaving without her."
"Then let me help you."
"You've done enough."
Roman turned and walked toward the staircase to the basement.
Declan watched him go.
"We need to leave," Lara said. "Now."
"Go. Take Elias. Get to the truck. Valentina is waiting."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to help Roman."
"He'll kill you."
"Maybe. But I'm not leaving anyone else in that basement."
Declan ran after Roman.
---
The basement was dark.
The emergency lights didn't reach this far. The only illumination came from the cells—faint glows from the windows, from the monitors, from the machines keeping the patients alive.
"Nina!" Roman shouted. "Where are you?"
No answer.
They walked through the corridors, past the empty cells, past the treatment rooms, past the red door that led to the maintenance tunnel.
And then Declan heard it.
A voice.
Singing.
A woman's voice, soft and sweet, coming from a cell at the end of the corridor.
Roman ran toward it.
"Nina!"
He pulled open the door.
Nina sat on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest, her eyes closed. She was singing a lullaby—the same one their mother used to sing.
"Nina, it's me. It's Roman. I'm here."
She opened her eyes.
"Roman," she whispered. "He said you were dead. He said you tried to escape and he killed you."
"I'm not dead. I'm right here."
Nina threw her arms around him, sobbing.
Declan stood in the doorway, watching.
They had found Nina.
Now they needed to escape.
---
The maintenance tunnel was dark.
Declan led the way, his flashlight cutting through the darkness. Roman carried Nina in his arms. She was too weak to walk—the drugs Elias had given her had left her barely conscious.
The tunnel seemed longer than before. The walls pressed closer. The air grew colder.
And then Declan saw light.
The grate at the end of the tunnel.
He pushed it open and climbed out into the night.
The parking lot was empty. No police. No ambulances. No one.
"Where is everyone?" Roman asked.
"I don't know."
Valentina's truck was parked behind the power plant, exactly where they'd left it. The engine was running. Valentina was behind the wheel.
"Get in!" she shouted.
Declan helped Roman load Nina into the back seat. Lara and Elias were already inside, pressed against the windows.
Declan climbed into the passenger seat.
"Go," he said.
Valentina floored the accelerator.
The truck sped away from the hospital, leaving behind the chaos, the patients, the cells, and the man who had once been Elias Vance.
Behind them, the hospital burned.
Not with fire.
With truth.
- Writer
